Group of fledging emperor penguin
chicks - Aptenodytes forsteri

Not all emperor penguin chicks are lucky enough
to see the sea this close when they are so young. Sometimes the
ice doesn't break up full or at all and causes problems for the parents
to get back to feed the chicks and so many of them starve.

It can be a curse as well as a blessing though. Some
years the sea-ice breaks up early and the chicks are stranded on floes
floating out to sea, if this happens while the parents are out fishing,
then again the chicks will starve. They can't swim until they have lost
all of their juvenile down and have developed their full adult plumage,
but this lot look like they're going to make it as they're nearly half
way through their moult.